(Newser)
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So, don't freak out or anything, but odds are good that you have human papillomavirus. After all, 69% of healthy American adults do, according to a new study released by the NYU Langone Medical Center. That's the bad news. The good news is that it's probably harmless; only four of the 103 infected people researchers looked at had one of the two HPV strains most likely to cause cancer or genital warts.

The two-year study was based on publicly available information from the National Institutes of Health's Human Microbiome Project. Whereas past studies looked only for the harmful strains of HPV, this one widened its net. "We don't want people to be alarmed," one researcher tells LiveScience. In fact, the team suspects that some of these HPV strains might actually be helpful by stimulating the immune system to fight off more harmful versions—and that the body may have "a seemingly 'normal' HPV viral biome" similar to its helpful bacteria ecosystem.

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BugFace

May 21, 2014 2:30 PM CDT

I'm willing to bet it's actually higher than that, as it doesn't always show up on tests. I've never tested positive for it, but I by no means think that means I definitely don't have it. There's still a good chance I (and most other people) do. The same is true for herpes. When I was 18 and freaking out just over the possibility of even having sex, my doctor informed me that most people actually have some form of herpes and never show any symptoms.

Tology

May 21, 2014 9:09 AM CDT

If you have skin tags, you have HPV. I'm sure a lot of us carry more than that.